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Cancer treatments have improved dramatically over the past decades. Many types of cancer have a high survival rate thanks to medical interventions that can slow or stop the growth of tumors and even eliminate them completely. Despite this, cancer remains the second leading cause of death in the United States, just behind heart disease, and there is still no one-size-fits-all cure or even the majority of cancer cases. It would be great if that changed, and a startup in California believes tiny robots could be the answer.
The company is Bionaut Labs, and as Los Angeles Times reports, the team worked hard in hopes of perfecting a robotic drug delivery system that is so small it looks like a stain of dirt to the naked eye. Yes, drug-carrying robots can ultimately help remove tumors by “driving” them inside your body.
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The idea sounds like something out of a science fiction story – and there are several such films and books that use miniaturized robots inside the human body for better or for worse – but it is the real deal. Bionaut Labs wants to remove the vagueness of most cancer therapy treatments, and its screw-shaped robots could do just that.
It’s an incredibly simple concept: Bionaut’s tiny robots are small enough to be injected into a human body without much discomfort, and once inside their screw-like shape allows them to be pointed towards the offending tumor using external magnets that produce a magnetic field. All the while, doctors are monitoring the robots’ progress on a live x-ray stream, making sure they are heading in the right direction and leading directly to the cancerous growth.
Once the bot (or, in most cases, multiple bots) reaches its destination, a command is sent to the devices using magnets as well. This prompts the devices to dump their drug payload directly onto the tumor itself, maximizing its effectiveness while hopefully minimizing side effects.
Compare that to a therapeutic approach involving drugs that are swallowed or even injected and you can see the benefits. Giving an anticancer drug to a tumor is normally something that needs to be done through the circulatory system, which means spreading the chemical throughout the body. It works, but it can also have side effects and it’s not as effective as if tiny robots were delivering the drugs.
I think what’s most interesting about this new report is that it’s not a pie-in-the-sky dream scenario. It is actually real technology that has already proven itself in the real world. The company is currently targeting specific types of cancers that affect the brainstem by injecting the robots into the spine where they can travel to the cancer site, but as the technology advances, it could become just as effective against other variants of cancer.
Based on the company’s roadmap, clinical trials could take place as early as 2023, paving the way for regulatory approval that would add it to the arsenal of cancer treatment options for specialists around the world. .
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Mike Wehner has been reporting on technology and video games for the past decade, covering the latest news and trends in virtual reality, wearable devices, smartphones, and future technologies. Most recently, Mike was a technical writer for The Daily Dot and has been featured on USA Today, Time.com, and countless other websites and print. His love of reporting comes right after his gambling addiction.
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